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Man May Have Paid Mom Off In Order to Sexually Assault Boy: Court Docs

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A registered sex offender was arrested this month, accused of abusing a young boy, and court papers say the suspect may have been paying off the child’s parents.

Court paperwork obtained by NBC Connecticut Investigates indicate that 42-year-old Paul Grimsley may have paid the boy’s parents as much as $120 per week to not notify East Hartford Police that he was sexually assaulting their son.

The investigation began in March when an anonymous source reported concerns about Grimsley to a social worker at the Department of Children and Families. According to that source, Grimsley told him that he had been sexually assaulting a boy and that the boy's mother and her partner were offering access to the child in exchange for $120.

According to court documents, when police interviewed the victim's mother she said she had confronted Grimsley after her son made an off-hand comments about Paul that concerned her. She said that Grimsley denied assaulting her son, but that she saw pornographic images of her son on his phone. She told investigators she took the phone and later downloaded images off of it, which she turned over to police as evidence.

Investigators said they found multiple pornographic images on Grimsley's cell phone, including images of the victim and other children that have not been identified.

Grimsley is on the state’s sex offender registry.

Grimsley is facing sexual assault and child pornography charges.

There is no word on whether the boy’s parents will face criminal charges.



Photo Credit: East Hartford Police Department

'It Was Coming for Me:’ Golfer Describes Bobcat Attack

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Warning: Some may find some of the images in the video disturbing.

Mike Popkowski has been golfing in Baltic for about 30 years. Never did he expect to get attacked by a rabid bobcat mid-round last Thursday.

The New London resident teed off at 7 a.m. with three of his friends, as per usual. But what happened at the 7th hole was anything but usual.

“I heard him say, ‘watch out!’ and as I looked up, this thing had left the ground. It was coming for me,” Popkowski said.

His friend headed a warning, but that’s when a bobcat leaped for Popkowski.

“I was able to turn my back and it landed on my back. And you know, scratching, biting, and we tumbled down quite a steep embankment,” he said.

The golfer is told by his friends that the wild animal was on him for two or three minutes.

One friend took his golf club and tried to knock the bobcat away. Popkowski said he was angry and put up a fight, too.

“I was trying to do what I could to it. Not that I’m Davy Crockett or anything, but you’re trying to save yourself.”

Officials believe that same bobcat attacked a horse in Baltic a little earlier that morning. The bobcat was later euthanized and tested positive for rabies.

"I've never seen a bobcat up there. Nor would you expect to go out to play a round of golf at 70 years old (that) you're going to get attacked by a wild animal,” Popkowski said.

He was taken to Backus Hospital for treatment. Popkowski has bite marks and scratches on his left shoulder, his right ear was stitched, and his right side is in pain from rolling down a steep embankment battling the animal.

Popkowski is also bruised and scratched up. The bobcat got to his scalp, too. He has 11 stables to his head.

“It’s a crunch, crunch, crunch,” he said, describing the sound of the procedure.

The golfer is getting rabies shots and said a good golf jacket was torn apart during the attack.

But Popkowski and his friends have a tee time from Friday. If it’s rained out, they’ll get lunch but he hopes to be playing again by Monday.

“Might not play the 7th hole but we’ll play,” Popkowski laughed. “I’m not going to quit golf because of this. This is a freaky thing.”

And who knows, Popkowski joked that skipping the 7th hole could actually help his score.



Photo Credit: NBC Connecticut

Teen Hit by SUV in Bloomfield

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A 15-year-old boy was taken to the hospital after he was hit by an SUV in Bloomfield Wednesday.

Police said the teen was hit in the area of 785 Park Ave. around 4:20 p.m. The driver, who did stop, told police the teen ran into the road without looking. The driver said they tried to avoid the teen, but couldn’t.

The victim suffered scrapes on his head, hands and side and had some bleeding from the ear. He was taken to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center for treatment.

State Police Recruitment Event Focuses on Women in Policing

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From those thinking about joining the ranks of Connecticut State Police to those who are already serving, dozens showed up for a State Police special recruiting event at the Connecticut Police Academy in Meriden on Wednesday.

State Police haven’t had a recruiting event geared toward women in about a decade. Troopers thought it was time to do one again after previously hearing women voice concerns.

“I’ve always been interested in law enforcement and I think they do very important work,” Kelsey Wallace of New Haven, said.

Wallace was among those taking part in the “Women in Policing” event.

“I’m really just interested in knowing more about becoming a state trooper, what they go through and how to get to the end goal,” Wallace said.

Wallace and others heard from women about how they started their careers and in some cases also started a family.

“We know there’s a lot out there that are interested. But they don’t know the full, full details of what it involves, what it takes and yes you can do both. You can be a mother. You can be a wife and you can do this job,” Trooper First Class Kelly Grant, said.

Among the areas the troopers represented were patrol, major crime and K9.

“I just determined working behind a desk wasn’t a job for me. I wanted to be outside,” Trooper Dawn Taylor said.

Taylor, along with her partner Lucas, is the resident trooper in Deep River.

She’s now been with State Police for more than 13 years.

“I think we’re all out there doing the same job. I enjoy that,” Taylor said.

Right now there are less than 100 women out of 900 troopers.

The hope is events like this could help change that.



Photo Credit: NBC Connecticut

2 Dead After Motorcycle Crash in Torrington

Man Shot Himself With Illegally-Possessed Gun Then Lied About It: Police

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A Hartford man faces charges after police say he shot himself in the leg by accident and then lied to police about it.

Police said they were called to 2197 Main St. around 4 p.m. on April 13 for a gunshot victim. They found 56-year-old Christopher Ryan with a gunshot wound to the leg. According to police, Ryan told them he did not know who shot him.

During the investigation police found surveillance footage that showed Ryan accidentally shot himself while getting out of a vehicle. Police said he then hid the gun, a .32 caliber handgun, in his apartment then called 911.

Ryan was charged with criminal possession of a firearm and carrying a pistol without a permit. He was held on a $200,000 bond and is due in court Thursday.



Photo Credit: Hartford Police Department

Two Rescued From Bristol Blaze

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One person was taken to the hospital after a fire in a two-family house on 4th St. in Bristol early Thursday morning.

Fire officials say two people were rescued by firefighters and two other people self-evacuated with the assistance of Bristol Police officers.

The extent of injuries is unknown.

The cause of the fire is under investigation but officials believe it started on the first floor near the rear of the house.

State Police ID Wethersfield Police Officers Involved in Fatal Shooting

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Connecticut State Police have identified two Wethersfield Police officers involved in the fatal police shooting of an 18-year-old suspect on Saturday.

The Hartford State's Attorney's Office is leading the investigation into the shooting that killed 18-year-old Anthony Jose Vega Cruz.  The teenager was suspected of trying to hit a police officer with his vehicle.

On Wednesday State Police identified the officer who fired as Officer Layau Eulizier. Eulizier was hired by the Wethersfield Police Department in August 2018. Prior to that he served in the US Air Force until 2017.

A second officer, Officer Peter Salvatore, was also present at the shooting, but did not fire his weapon, according to Connecticut State Police. He has worked for Wethersfield Police since September 2013.

State Police said neither officer has any disciplinary history.

Connecticut State Police are still piecing together what led to a Wethersfield Police officer opening fire in the area of Silas Deane Highway and Maple Street on Saturday.

Troopers said Cruz and his passenger, 18-year-old Stephanie Santiago, were in a car that two Wethersfield police officers were trying to pull over when there was a collision between the suspect’s vehicle and one of the cruisers.

State Police said an officer got out of his cruiser and the suspect’s car drove toward him. Detectives say that’s when the officer fired.

Investigators said Cruz died of his injuries at the hospital. Santiago was not hurt.

Wethersfield police said their officers are not equipped with body cameras.


Community Mourns Windsor Teen Shot and Killed in Hartford

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On Wednesday night, loved ones placed candles on the ground for Felipe Lopez at the spot where he'd been just hours before.

Hartford police say the Windsor teen was found shot multiple times inside a car on Albany Avenue. A witness told police the car traveled down Sigourney Street and crossed over Albany Avenue, crashing into an unoccupied parked car. Lopez died at the hospital.

"It's broken us. We're broken. We're close, but we're broken," said Lopez's mother, Alma Lopez.

Family and friends grieved together at Wednesday night's vigil. Lopez's dad stared at his son's picture for much of it. The Windsor High School student was killed just two days before his 17th birthday.

"I didn't believe it," said Jenise Colon, Lopez's girlfriend.

She'll now raise their 9-month-old daughter without him.

Through their grief, the family had one message they wanted to spread.

"I want justice. I want it the right way. I want you in jail. So if you're out there and you're seeing me, I want you in jail. You're going to get caught. You trust me on that," said Alma Lopez.

Police believe the teen was targeted and at the vigil family and friends pleaded for people to come forward and give them justice and closure.

"I want justice for my baby. Anyone that has information, please come forward and talk. We need this. We all need this," said Alma Lopez.

"I'm not going to sleep until I find out who killed my son," said Jose Lopez, the victim's father.

The heartbroken family is also asking for an end to the violence so that another family won't have to go through an unbearable loss.

"I don't want to be out here ever again like this. I want this to be the last rally of somebody dying," said Alma Lopez.

The family says they don't know why Lopez was out in Hartford early Wednesday morning. Anyone with information on the case should call police.



Photo Credit: NBC Connecticut/Contributed Photo

Trump Campaign Hasn't Committed to Staying Away From Hacked Material

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President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has not publicly stated that it will not use hacked materials to its advantage, in contrast with the Democratic National Committee and a long list of the party's 2020 candidates, NBC News reported. 

Special counsel Robert Mueller's report said that while investigators had found no criminal conspiracy between the campaign and the Russians, the Trump team expected to "benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts." 

The White House, Trump's 2020 campaign and the Republican National Committee have not responded to requests for comment about future use of hacked materials. Vice President Mike Pence did not directly respond to a question from NBC News Wednesday about whether he regretted the campaign’s use of hacked emails in 2016 and whether he would pledge not to do so again. 

Notably, Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani recently maintained that there was “nothing wrong with taking information from Russians.”



Photo Credit: AP

Public Universities Struggle to Support Black Students, Report Finds

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As universities make last ditch efforts to woo new students ahead of the May 1 National College Decision Day — when students will make their final college decision — a handful of public universities ranked lowest in a report on resources for black students are still struggling to support some of their currently enrolled students.

When Kaidee Akullo moved nearly 400 miles from her hometown of Fort Collins, Colorado to attend Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado in 2016, she felt lucky to have been assigned to one of the few black resident assistants on campus. Durango is nearly 300 miles from Colorado Springs, the nearest major city and has an estimated 18,000 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The town had just more than 100 black or African American inhabitants in 2017. 

Her RA would later introduce her to Fort Lewis’ Black Student Union, which, at the time, was only in its second year on campus and had just three regularly attending members. 

Only 1% of the university’s 3,300 undergraduate students identified as black or African American in 2017, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Fort Lewis currently employs only one black faculty member, according to school officials. 

Akullo, a graduating public health major, and three other students from the college described to NBC what they saw as lack of resources available to Fort Lewis’ black students compared to other racial and ethnic groups that comprise the student body. They detailed the absence of professional staff to mentor black students and the lack of support services specific to black students.

Fort Lewis College was one of 30 schools that ranked at the bottom of a University of Southern California report in September that assessed black college students’ success and resources at 506 public universities across the country. Shaun Harper, the founder and executive director of USC’s Race and Equity Center, and Isaiah Simmons, an associate researcher at the center, created the report.

“The overall idea was if [education] is something we’re all paying into [via taxes], everyone should feel like they’re getting something out of it or at least that it’s working in their favor in some sort of way,” Simmons said.

Schools were rated on how the percentage of black undergraduates reflected their state’s percentage of black 18- to 24-year-old residents and how the difference between the percentage of black female students and the percentage of black male students compared to the national ratio. The report also compared the six-year graduation rates for black students and overall graduation rates for undergraduate students. The researchers additionally looked at the ratio of full-time, degree seeking black students to full-time black faculty members.

Nearly eight months after the initial report was published, some of the 35 schools that scored the lowest argue that they have been taking active steps to improve resources for their black students. After speaking with 17 university spokespersons, presidents, faculty and students, similar themes emerged for why the schools struggled to perform well in the areas noted by the report. Many schools cited their statuses as predominantly indigenous- or Latino-serving institutions, their town’s small population of black residents and their rural locations.

Fort Lewis received F’s in three areas: gender equity, completion equity and black student-to-black faculty ratio.

Junior Taylor O’Neal, who identifies as black and Alaskan native, said that if it weren’t for Fort Lewis’ tuition waiver for indigenous students and the friends she found through the Black Student Union, she would have never transferred to the college. O’Neal said that the resources available to black students at the institution were so few that they could not be compared to the resources she found at her previous universities, Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California and Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, California. 

“I feel like there’s so little support for black students — the least amount of support I’ve ever experienced in education,” O’Neal said. “This was one of my opportunities to attend college and get an education, and it’s at a place where it’s really hard to stay on course.”

To help create a support system for students like O’Neal, this academic year, Black Student Union President Kaidee Akullo and other Black Student Union members opened the campus’ first Black Student Resource Center, a student-run space where Akullo said black students could “build a strong community and have access to resources specific to our community.”

The Fort Lewis students who NBC spoke with claimed that the Black Student Union had been integral to providing resources the college failed to offer. 

“There’s been a lot of growth in the past years that I’ve been here, but a lot of the growth has been student driven,” Akullo said. “So it’s coming from within the community versus being an issue that the administration sees needs fixing so that we can have a better time here at the school.”

Fort Lewis College President Tom Stritikus said Akullo and other Black Student Union members were “accurate” to claim students were leading in providing important resources for their black peers. 

Stritikus, however, said he was concerned about black student equity even before he saw the USC report. Since becoming president less than a year ago, Stritikus said he has been focusing on hearing student grievances and addressing concerns about student and faculty diversity.

“One of the things that we launched even before that report started was a faculty diversity initiative to make sure that our hiring practices were yielding diverse candidate pools,” Stritikus said.

Last fall, Stritikus created the Presidential Diversity Council, which includes members from a variety of student groups, including the Black Student Union. The council gives input on the administration’s new diversity policies and initiatives. 

Stritikus hopes to hear more student feedback from a climate survey that will include questions about inclusion and a sense of belonging on campus. He also said he wants to create a centralized student support service center and establish a program for first year students to increase resources for all students and make the college transition easier.

“Our position is we want to ensure every student on this campus feels a sense of belonging and a sense of inclusion on our campus,” Stritikus said. “We acknowledge that we have a lot of work to do.” 

Like Fort Lewis College, other institutions ranked low on the list also admitted that they still have a lot of progress to make, but they also said the report does not tell the full story. 

Ronalda Cadiente-Brown, the associate vice chancellor for Alaska Native Programs at the University of Alaska Southeast and director of the School of Education Preparing Indigenous Teachers and Administrators for Alaska Schools, said her university did not have enough African-American students to allow it to offer the same resources it provides for the school’s other populations. 

The University of Alaska Southeast received three F’s because of its gender disparity between black students (the student body is overwhelmingly female), the difference in graduation rate for black students and the lack of black full-time faculty members. 

“In terms of African-American students, I would say that we don’t have the population density that would enrich us to do what we’ve done with other populations, meaning clubs, advisers, faculty and the like,” Cadiente-Brown said. 

At the start of the 2017-2018 academic year, about 1.3% of full-time undergraduate attendees identified as black, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Despite having a predominantly white student population, the Juneau, Alaska campus is a nationally recognized Native-American serving institution with 12.4% of undergraduate students identifying as Alaskan natives or American Indians in 2017.

The University of Alaska Southeast was one of four minority serving public institutions to be ranked among the top 10 lowest report scores. 

Cadiente-Brown’s explanation for the resources gap mirrored those given by administrators at Aberdeen, South Dakota’s Northern State University.

Like the University of Alaska Southeast, Northern received three F’s because most of its black students are male, black students’ graduation rate is more than three times smaller than the university’s overall graduation rate and the school employs no full-time, black faculty. But compared to the Alaskan institution, Northern State University’s student population is 84% white with no other ethnic or racial group representing more than 5%.

Although Diversity Coordinator and Director of Multicultural Student Affairs Layton Cooper said “the data doesn’t lie,” Cooper also said he doesn’t think the report is a true reflection of the school or the town.

“I think that while you do have numbers, data and statistics, it really doesn’t tell the whole story,” Layton, a black Chicago native that moved to Aberdeen 13 years ago. “I think we’re headed in the right direction in terms of staffing, and I think the students that are here of color would say that they do feel welcomed and they do know that they have people that can connect with them and speak with them in their own way.”

A student shared that although he hasn’t always felt at home at Northern, that’s starting to change.

Northern State University junior Harrison Bruns felt so uncomfortable at the school that about a month into his first semester he called his mom and begged her to let him transfer to a school like Howard University, a historically black institution. Although Bruns said he visited his grandmother in Aberdeen regularly before enrolling at Northern, he was stunned by the lack of diversity compared to his Minnesota high school. 

“Coming to Northern it was weird being the only black kid in a class, which happened to me on multiple occasions,” Bruns said. “That’s super weird coming from a high school where me and a third of the class was black. It was more of a cultural shock getting taken out of living in an environment that was relatively diverse and coming here.”

After Bruns’ mother told him to at least finish his school year before deciding to transfer, Bruns began to get more involved in student organizations. Through his position as a president of the Campus Activity Board, Bruns has hosted events that bring diverse voices, like that of black comedian Erin Jackson, to campus. 

Bruns cited the appointment of Dr. Timothy Downs as the school’s president during Brun’s freshman year as a possible factor in what Bruns sees as positive changes. 

Northern State University has been taking active steps to address the issues highlighted in the report and the lack of diversity that soured Bruns’ freshman year, according to university Spokesperson Justin Fraase.

Through programs like TRIO — a federal education program that provides resources to low-income, first-generation and disabled students — and the Student Success Center, Fraase said the university has been able to increase retention rates for freshman and sophomores to more than 72%. 

Fraase said that the administration is also encouraging its admission counselors to expand their recruitment to cities like Minneapolis, Minnesota and St. Paul, Minnesota, which are considerably more diverse than Aberdeen, South Dakota.

Northern and other public universities will allow incoming students from Colorado, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming to pay South Dakota in-state tuition rates as part of a statewide initiative to expand South Dakota’s workforce, according to a South Dakota Board of Regents press release. Fraase said the new South Dakota Advantage tuition program — along with the state’s long-running tuition agreement with Minnesota — will help Northern State University compete with surrounding instate schools and institutions in larger metropolitan areas like Omaha, Nebraska and Denver, Colorado.

The university is also trying to increase its faculty’s diversity by revamping human resource policies and posting job openings on more websites so that more people see them.

“In addition to ensuring that we get our students out, graduated and ready for the workforce, we also need to bring diversity to Aberdeen and be one of those catalysts of change for Aberdeen,” Fraase said. “I think that falls on us as a higher [education] institution, and I think we accept that challenge.”

Isaiah Simmons, one of the report’s creators, occasionally agreed that some of the factors that caused the universities to fail in certain categories are difficult to resolve. Simmons acknowledged that institutions that received low scores for representation equity because the percentage of enrolled black students did not equal the state’s percentage of college-aged black individuals are not completely at fault.

“Things like that are a bit harder to measure, but I think what you can do is you can still look to create an environment and atmosphere that is welcoming towards people from various racial identities,” Simmons said.

Simmons also commended schools like the University of Alaska Southeast for supporting an underserved minority group, although he said that doesn’t give the institution “a license to ignore investing.” 

Even if the area around the school lacks diversity, Simmons suggested that administrators expand their recruitment to more diverse locals, train their staff to promote diversity and bring diverse perspectives to campus through public speakers.

To those who argued that the report did not show the whole story, Simmons responded, “The numbers are what they are.” Statistics used in the report are based on federally reported data on public universities. Simmons added that the rankings are simply a reality check to concretely show schools what they’re doing wrong and right. Ultimately, Simmons said, time will tell if the university’s policies to increase resources for black students are working. 

“Now more than ever, especially for these underrepresented populations and students, if you’re going to invest the time and opportunity cost into going to college, it’s important to demonstrate that it’s a place where you can go and thrive and succeed,” Simmons said.



Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Fort Lewis College Black Student Union
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I-84 East in East Hartford Clear After Vehicle Fire

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A vehicle was on fire on Interstate 84 East in East Hartford and everyone is OK, according to police.

Firetrucks blocked lanes, but the scene is now clear.



Photo Credit: Connecticut Department of Transportation

East Elliott Street in Hartford Closed to Repair Water Line

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East Elliott Street in Hartford is closed as crews work to repair a fire service water line.

Police said the road is closed between Franklin and Wethersfield avenues.

Crews at the scene said a fire service water line that supplies water to sprinklers or private hydrants blew and caused a water leak. The water has been shut off.

Police are urging people to avoid the area.



Photo Credit: Cory Swan

New Allegations Against SEAL Vet Accused of War Crimes

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Chief Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL facing Court Martial in the death of a young wounded ISIS fighter, is also under investigation for the shooting death of a civilian in Afghanistan in 2010, according to a 439-page document leaked to the New York Times.

NBC 7 has not confirmed the information in the document leaked to the Times, but sources say the U.S. Navy was aware of the incident in Afghanistan.

"To leak that is just unfair to Eddie, it's unfair to the defense, we're innocent until proven guilty and I think they attempted to taint the waters," Ed Hiner, a retired Navy SEAL and supporter of Chief Gallagher said.

Chief Gallagher’s military trial is scheduled to begin at the end of May. He is charged with killing the ISIS fighter.

As noted in previous reports, NBC 7 learned during the Article 32 in military court that the Navy will present evidence at trial including cell phone photos that they say show Gallagher holding the deceased fighter during a reenlistment ceremony.

Fellow SEALs also testified that Gallagher shot at and struck Iraqi civilians on two occasions.

Chief Gallagher has denied all of the allegations.

In the recently-leaked document are allegations that SEAL team leadership discouraged team members from coming forward to report the alleged incidents.

But Hiner says SEALs were required to document incidents while deployed.

"To come back this many years later and start making allegations, I think it's just ridiculous... nonsense," he said.

The decorated Navy SEAL is no longer represented by San Diego Attorney Phil Stackhouse. He has hired a new lead defense attorney from New York, Timothy Parlatore.

Chief Gallagher is awaiting trial at Naval Medical Center San Diego after President Trump ordered he be moved from the Navy Brig at MCAS Miramar.

His Court Martial is scheduled to begin at the end of May. If convicted the SEAL veteran of 20 years faces life in prison.

Another Company Adds to Popular Blood Pressure Drug Recall

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Another company has expanded its recall of a prescription drug used to treat high blood pressure and congestive heart failure, marking the latest in a series of nearly two dozen recalls sweeping the country since last summer. 

Legacy Pharmaceutical Packaging said Wednesday it was expanding its previous recall of three lots of Losartan Tablets USP 50mg to include a fourth following last week's nationwide pull by multibillion-dollar Torrent Pharmaceuticals

All of the recalls have stemmed from the discovery of a trace amount of a possible carcinogen -- N-Methylnitrosobutyric acid (NMBA) -- in an active ingredient.

NMBA, a potential cancer-causing impurity, was found at levels above the acceptable daily intake recommendations of the FDA, Torrent said last week. No adverse health effects related to the recall have been reported, the company said. Legacy said Wednesday it had not received any such reports either.

Losartan Potassium USP is a prescription medication used to treat high blood pressure and congestive heart failure and is packaged in 30ct bottles. The identifying NDC number associated with Legacy’s product is: Losartan Potassium, USP, 50mg NDC 68645-494-54. See details on all recalled lots here.

Consumers taking the affected medication should speak with their doctors to discuss the recall before they stop taking the drug, or if they have experienced any adverse effects that may be related to the drug.

Other manufacturers have recalled losartan in recent months, but some have involved different potential contaminants. Be sure to contact your health care provider or pharmacy if you have any questions about losartan overall. 

Anyone with questions about the latest recall may call Torrent Pharmaceuticals at 1-800-912-9561 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 



Photo Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Crash Closes Route 12 in Coventry, Near Plainfield Line

Ill. Couple Held on $5M Bond After Being Charged With Son's Murder

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An Illinois judge set bail at $5 million each for the parents of Andrew "AJ" Freund one day after the Crystal Lake couple was charged with murder in the death of their 5-year-old son.

Joann Cunningham, 36, and Andrew Freund Sr., 60, appeared separately on Thursday morning at the McHenry County Jail during a hearing in which a prosecutor told Judge Mark Gerhardt that Freund allegedly beat Andrew "AJ" Freund and forced him into a cold shower.

Authorities dug up a body Wednesday believed to be that of AJ, who was reported missing a week ago.

Cunningham cried as the judge read the charges against her while Freund Sr. sat silent. Prosecutors initially called for $10 million bonds for each parent. 

Cunningham was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, four counts of aggravated battery, two counts of aggravated domestic battery and one count of failure to report a missing or child death.

Freund Sr. was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated battery, one count of aggravated domestic battery, two counts of concealment of homicidal death and one count of failure to report a missing or child death.

The judge's order means the parents would each have to post 10%, or $528,000, to be released from jail and would be subject to electronic monitoring. They were told they cannot contact each other or anyone under the age of 17 and must surrender any firearms and consent to random drug testing, should they post bond. 

Prosecutors had originally asked for a bond of $10 million. The two were next expected to appear in court April 29. 

Crystal Lake police said Wednesday that investigators located a body wrapped in plastic and buried in a shallow grave in a remote area of Woodstock, just a few miles from the family's Crystal Lake home.

The discovery came a week to the day since AJ's parents said they last saw the child after putting him to bed around 9:30 p.m. on April 17. 

The following morning, Freund Sr. called police to report AJ missing, telling a dispatcher they'd checked "closets, the basement, the garage, everywhere,"in the house to no avail, according to the 911 call released Tuesday. But investigators quickly knocked down the possibility of a kidnapping.

LISTEN TO THE 911 AUDIO HERE

Police said both parents were questioned overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday morning. After investigators confronted them with cell phone data evidence "both Joann and Andrew Sr. provided information that ultimately led to the recovery, what we believe is the recovery of deceased subject AJ," said Crystal Lake Police Chief James Black. 

Law enforcement and first responders descended on a large wooded area in Woodstock Wednesday morning. At the same time, police were seen searching the family's Dolve Avenue home. 

Moments later, evidence technicians brought items from an evidence van into the Crystal Lake police station. Those items included a mattress, a large bin, two large brown bags, and an item that appeared to be a shovel with a long wooden handle.

Police scoured the area surrounding the family's home for days after the boy's disappearance, searching hundreds of acres of land and water before centering their investigation on the house, saying they found no evidence of an abduction. 

The cause of death was not immediately known and police said it would be determined "at a later date." An autopsy was expected to be performed Thursday. 

"To AJ’s family, it is our hope that you may have some solace in knowing that AJ is no longer suffering and his killers have been brought to justice," Black said Wednesday. "We would also like to thank the community for their support and assistance during this difficult time. To AJ, we know you are at peace playing in heaven’s playground and are happy you no longer have to suffer." 

Both parents appeared Tuesday in McHenry County Circuit Court for a custody hearing related to their other son, who was removed from the family home following AJ's disappearance and is in custody of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.



Photo Credit: Crystal Lake Police

At Least 37 Hospitalized After Chemical Spill in Chicago Suburb

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At least 37 people were taken to area hospitals following a dangerous chemical spill in Beach Park, Illinois that prompted a shelter-in-place warning and closed schools in numerous Chicago suburbs Thursday. 

Officials initially said at 7:30 a.m. that 12 to 15 people were transported to the hospital for evaluation, all in serious but stable condition, for breathing and inhalation issues after a chemical cloud spilled into the sky from a tractor trailer. By 10 a.m., 37 people were transported. 

Authorities warned residents within a one-mile radius of the intersection of North Green Bay Road and East 29th Street to stay inside with windows closed. They were also told to turn off any heating or ventilation equipment. 

That shelter-in-place order was lifted just after 10 a.m., though door-to-door checks from law enforcement were still ongoing. 

Police arrived at the scene early Thursday morning after a caller reported a possible vehicle fire at the intersection. 

"As the deputies approached they were overcome by the chemical that was in the air," Sgt. Christopher Covelli with the Lake County Sheriff's office. "They had to retreat and couldn’t actively attend to the scene." 

A Lake County Sheriff's sergeant and deputy and a Zion police officer were among those being treated Thursday morning, Covelli said. The driver of the vehicle also appeared to have "some medical issues" likely due to the spill, he added. 

Officials said the spill appeared to be anhydrous ammonia, "which created a dangerous chemical cloud in the area," warning the public not to get close. 

Anhydrous ammonia is a colorless gas with "pungent, suffocating fumes," per the CDC, which said it can cause difficulty breathing, chest pain, burns and more, becoming potentially fatal at high concentrations.

"This is a very dangerous chemical that can cause unconsciousness and worse case scenario death," Covelli said. 

Lake Forest Fire Division Chief Mike Gallo urged anyone who may be having breathing issues in the area to call 911 and get evaluated. 

The Lake County sheriff's office said the spill occurred at around 4:30 a.m. when a tractor carrying containers of anhydrous ammonia had a leak. 

"It is really important to stay inside," Covelli said in a phone interview, adding, "Don't come out and risk breathing in these fumes, these toxic fumes that are in the air."

Further details, including timing on when the spill might be resolved, were not available. 

"At least several more hours if not a good part of the day here," said Divison Chief Mike Gallo with the Forest Lake Fire Department, who noted that the plume is slowly dissipating. 

All schools in Beach Park School District 3 were closed Thursday because of the chemical spill, the district posted on its website, citing safety concerns for students and staff. 

District 3 schools include: Beach Park Middle School, Howe Elementary School, Kenneth Murphy Elementary School, Newport Elementary School and Oak Crest Elementary School. 

Zion-Benton Township High School and New Tech High @ Zion-Benton East were also closed Thursday, according to an alert from District 126, which said police advised school officials to cancel classes for the day, and that the district did not have access to buses for student transport.

Prairie Trail schools in Wadsworth were also closed, Covelli said. 

Sky5 footage from above showed a large response to the hazmat situation, with several emergency vehicles on the scene. Officials were going door-to-door throughout the area as of 9 a.m. 

Check back for updates on this developing story.

Man Killed When Barn Collapses in Bethany

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A man was killed when a barn collapsed in Bethany on Thursday morning.

A state trooper who was working a construction job nearby heard a loud crash in the area of the barn on Litchfield Turnpike, went to see what happened and met a man who was yelling for help and said someone was trapped in the barn, according to state police.

State police said they received the call at 8:42 a.m. and other first responders, including emergency medical services and firefighters, responded to the scene. Inside the structure, a middle age man was found unresponsive and he died from the injuries he sustained, according to police.

The barn was built in 1900 or 1901 and construction began in January or February to refurbish the structure, according to state police.

No additional information was immediately available.

Check back for updates.



Photo Credit: NBC Connecticut

Complaints Detail Allegations of How Crystal Lake Boy Died

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WARNING: Details in this story may be disturbing for some readers. 

The parents of 5-year-old Andrew "AJ" Freund forced the young boy to stand in a cold shower and beat him three days before the child was reported missing to police, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday. 

The complaint alleges that on April 15, AJ's parents forced him "to remain in a cold shower for an extended period of time and/or struck [AJ] on or about his body, knowing that said acts would cause the death of [AJ], thereby causing the death." 

Read the full complaints below

An autopsy was scheduled to take place Thursday morning. A cause of death has not yet been released by the McHenry County Coroner's office. 

The incidents took place two days before the couple told police they last saw their child while putting him to bed on April 17. The next morning they reported him missing. 

The parents were each ordered held on $5 million bonds Thursday, one day after they were both charged in AJ's death and disappearance. 

Joann Cunningham and Andrew Freund Sr. faced a judge for the first time since authorities said they found what they believed to be AJ's body on Wednesday. 

Cunningham cried as the judge read the charges against her while Freund Sr. sat silent. 

Cunningham was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, four counts of aggravated battery, two counts of aggravated domestic battery and one count of failure to report a missing or child death.

Freund Sr. was charged with five counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated battery, one count of aggravated domestic battery, two counts of concealment of homicidal death and one count of failure to report a missing or child death.

Crystal Lake police said Wednesday that investigators located a body wrapped in plastic and buried in a shallow grave in a remote area of Woodstock, just miles from the Crystal Lake home where the boy was reported missing six days earlier.  

That same day marked one week since AJ's parents said they last saw the child, putting him to bed at around 9:30 p.m. at their Crystal Lake home.

The following morning, Freund Sr. called police to report that his son was not in the house and that they had canvassed the neighborhood, went to a local park, checked an area gas station and called his school - but AJ was nowhere to be found, according to the 911 call released Tuesday

LISTEN TO THE 911 AUDIO HERE

"We have a missing child," the father told dispatchers at the beginning of the 911 call Thursday morning, later saying they had checked "closets, the basement, the garage, everywhere" in the house to no avail.

Police said both parents were questioned overnight Tuesday and into Wednesday morning after information was obtained during a "forensic analysis of cell phone data." 

"Once presented with the evidence obtained by investigators, both Joann and Andrew Sr. provided information that ultimately led to the recovery, what we believe is the recovery of deceased subject AJ," Crystal Lake Police Chief James Black. 

Law enforcement and first responders descended on a large wooded area in Woodstock Wednesday morning. At the same time, police were seen searching the family's home on Dole Avenue in Crystal Lake. 

Moments later, evidence technicians brought items from an evidence van into the Crystal Lake police station. Those items included a mattress, a large bin, two large brown bags, and an item that appeared to be a shovel with a long wooden handle.

Police scoured the area surrounding the family's home for days after the boy's disappearance, searching hundreds of acres of land and water before centering their investigation on the house, saying they found no evidence of an abduction. 

"To AJ’s family, it is our hope that you may have some solace in knowing that AJ is no longer suffering and his killers have been brought to justice," Black said Wednesday. "We would also like to thank the community for their support and assistance during this difficult time. To AJ, we know you are at peace playing in heaven’s playground and are happy you no longer have to suffer." 

Both parents appeared Tuesday in McHenry County Circuit Court for a custody hearing related to their other son, who was taken into custody by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services the day AJ was reported missing.

The hearing was continued, with the next hearing set for Monday at 9 a.m. CST.

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